The End of Summer - Summer Bucket List Recap

Today is the official last day of summer. Soon, the long sunny days will give way to early darkness and cold. Boo. (I miss it already!) I'd say that this year, Team Lopez had a pretty amazing summer. We played a lot, laughed a lot, and just had fun together.

One thing that helped us make the most of this summer was our Summer Bucket List. I knew we had made a pretty lofty list, but I think that the list alone inspired us me to make sure we made the days count.

Summer Bucket List 2012

1. Go to the beach - No. We didn't get to this one. You'd think, with us living so close to the beach, that we'd get there more often than we do. Hopefully we'll be able to get there before the boys go off to college!

2. Build a sand castle - Sort of. This one we did a modified version of outside in our cool sandbox. The boys had lots of fun in the sand this summer.

3. See a shooting star - Yes! Ok, like I said, it may have been a plane, but the little people thought it was a shooting star and they were AMAZED. That is all that matters!

4. Go to the library and get a library card - No. That is still on my to do list, though.

5. Learn how to write our names really well - Meh. We worked on it a bit, but not a lot. Neither boy is great at it yet.

6. Go on a picnic - No. We did "picnic" in the living room, though.

7. Do some crafts - Yes! See the post here.

8. Go out to breakfast - Yes! We did breakfast for dinner. It didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, but we did it! See the post here.

9. Stay in our jammies all day! - Yes. Numerous times! :-)

10. Go on a treasure hunt - No, we didn't get to this one. I do have plans for something.

11. Watch a movie - Yes! We saw a couple of home movies this summer.

12. Have a sleepover in the living room - Um...no. That just didn't sound like fun to me. lol.

13. Do a science experiment - Yes! See the post here and here!

14. Learn to swim - No. I bought some floaties, but we never did get to use them.

15. Learn to ride a bike - No, but I did hear from a little bird that some boys may be getting bikes sometime in the near future...shhhh!

16. Play in the backyard - Oh yes! We did this a lot! See here, here, here, and here.

17. Get ice cream - Yes! Post here.

18. See an animal we've never seen - Yes! Post here.

19. Read a book we've never read - I'd have to say no to this one. We did read a lot of books, but none of them were new.

20. Do a random-act-of-kindness - How horrible that I have to say no to this! Jeez. (Isaac says that they entertain people and brighten their day when we go out, so that should count.)

21. Read - Yep!

22. Explore 3 new parks - Well, we got in 2 parks unless you count Disneyland. lol. See here and here.

23. Go on a nature hike - Nope.

24. Go to Disneyland - Yes, it's the highlight of the summer! See here, here, here, and here.

25. See fireworks - Yep. See the post here.

26. Go to the zoo - No, but we've been there before, so I don't feel so badly about this one.

27. Go see the jets at the airport - Nope.

28. Go on a road trip (sorry guys, we're staying in CA) - Nope again, unless you count the trip to Anaheim.

29. Visit friends - Yes!!

30. Go to the fair - No. We didn't go this year, which is surprising because Isaac and I have a tradition to go every year. :(

31. Laugh a lot! - Oh YES!

32. Learn new jokes - Yep. We learned some new jokes and practiced our delivery.

33. Go see where Mom and Dad work - Nope.

34. Spend time with family - Yep. :-)

35. Eat watermelon outside and make a mess! - Yep. See the post here.

36. Go to Alameda Park in Santa Barbara (and the turtle park) - No. I thought that would be fun, too.

37. Go to the Cross - Nope

38. Go to an aquarium - Nope

39. Go to a water park - Nope

While we didn't get to everything on our list, we certainly did enough to make the summer memorable!

Summer Bucket List 2012 - The Park

We went to the park this weekend. It was so much fun! Look at our guys...

He is getting so good at climbing up slides!

Loving the swing.

Shawn standing with his daddy watching the cars go by.

Smelling a dandelion.

Mommy and Jack walking to the park.

Making a wish on a dandelion.

Jason has already made me put a check on the calendar for the next time we can go back!

Summer Bucket List - Disneyland Part 3

These are the last of the Disney pictures. I broke down and ordered the disk they offered because they suckered me in with the words "half off" or else I wouldn't have got them. It's good, though, because these are the only pictures we have of the four of us together during that trip.

Our first attempt at a family picture didn't exactly work out the way I'd hoped. We walked past a photographer with no line. She said we was working with "Duffy,"* but he was on break. Perfect, I thought. We didn't want our pictures with Duffy anyway. We were all set for her to take her first shot when Duffy reappeared. Shawn would have NONE of Duffy, so Jason and daddy had a solo photo shoot.

Below is a better version of the photo I already posted of the four of us. The photographer was Bethany, and she managed to get us all to look at the camera and somewhat smile. Yea!

Next is the first attempt to get us to all smile at another point in Radiator Springs. We only batted 3 out of 4 in this one.

Attempt number two still left us with only 3 out of 4 smilers. Lol. It's a bit comical how you can take so many pictures and only end up with a few with everyone looking at the camera at the same time!

We had to have our picture taken with Mater...

Another shot of us in front of the leaning tower of tires.

Disney added some stock photos, so I thought I'd share them, also. Too bad I'm no where near good enough to take pictures like these, myself!

I did take a picture very similar to this!
Mine just had three million people in it. ;-)

So there you have it, our Disney experience. The boys continue to ask daily to go back, so I guess that means they really liked it, too. :-)


*I have no idea why Disneyland, with the availability of so many wonderful characters, chose to create the Duffy character...

Summer Bucket List - Disneyland Day 2

We woke up at the crack of dawn nice and early on day two because our room had not one, but two skylights! So much for sleeping in a little, right? :)

Our second day was spent at California Adventure Park!

Look out California Adventure Park, here we come!

We moseyed around a bit, checking things out...


Hey, look! Rocks. Nothing gets by these two.
Walt Disney himself would have to be happy that our boys didn't miss any
of the details that make this such a magic place!

When we spotted the carousel and decided to give it a spin.

"Look over there dad!  Is that Woody from Toy Story?"

Jason wanted to ride on the dolphin!

He tried to choke me when the ride started. lol.

Holding on for dear life!

Our boys are WILD! :)

Our next stop was Cars Land!

Shawn wanted to stop and have a taste of some organic
fuel at Filmore's.

We got some gas at Flo's.
(and we finally figured out why Shawn kept saying,
"Here's some tea for your gas."--Tulsa Tea!)

Gassing up for some more adventures!

We saw Red, the fire engine, drive by!

And Lightning, himself!

Ka chow!

From the expressions on their faces, there isn't much that can top seeing the Cars movie brought to life!

From Radiator Springs, we found ourselves wandering into the garden of A Bugs Life.

Daddy, Shawn, and Jason bugs under the hose.

Daddy and Jason decided to try out another ride!

Waiting in line...

so Jason could drive a bumper car!

He said it was fun, but it was too slow. Ok, boy. The carousel was too fast, and yet the bumper cars were too slow? Um, sure.

Shawn and I found a photo op...

Sweet boy was telling me he loved me.

Then we went back to Cars Land. You know, because you can never get enough of Cars Land when you're 4. lol

Classic Radiator Springs!

While we were there, we got to see Mater!

"Well, I'llllll be!"

We headed back to the hotel for a little lunch and to unwind sleep. Our boys, who no longer take naps, took a 2.5 hour one! They stayed like this for the whole time.

Turn off those skylights!

Out cold.

Jason got in a little bit of balcony time before we headed back to Disneyland.
For a kid who doesn't like heights, he seemed pretty relaxed for playing 7 floors up!

Earlier in the day, Jason had decided he wanted to throw a rock into the pond. Disneyland was so clean, all the rocks Jason spotted were actually cemented into the landscape. So, on our way back from our hotel, Jason found two rocks to throw. He could hardly wait to get them in that water.

Dropping the rocks into the pond.
He made sure to keep his rocks away from the ducks.
"I don't want to hurt the ducks!"

He's quite pleased with himself.

Back to Cars Land for us. (Notice a theme for the day here?)

They turned on their neon just for us!

In a move that shocked both Isaac and myself, Jason decided he wanted to ride on the Cars ride. He wanted to race just like Lightning McQueen."

This wasn't a kiddie ride, though. The minimum height requirement was 40 inches, so by a mere 2.5 inches, Jason managed to make it on. (They even checked his height at one point!)

Plus, this ride was fast. I don't know if Jason truly appreciated that fact.

But he wanted to do it, so Isaac took him.

Waiting in line. Look at how excited he is!

Just before the ride took off in a burst of speed.
The ride up until this point consisted of the characters giving a tour of the town.
Then Mater comes up and says, "There's Frank!" and the car takes off!

Getting the tires changed at Luigi's before the big race!

Shawn and I were outside waiting for them to go by. This is what it looked like while we waited.

Jason's car was about to zoom by on that track!

This is a picture of them during the race. Jason's in the front, middle
seat. He is clutching on to daddy's arm. 

When he got off, he wasn't quite sure what to do with the experience. He never cried or yelled, but he was overwhelmed. It was too funny.

After he thought about it some, he wanted to go on it again!

The night was winding down, and the boys were feeling a quart low, so we visited Mater's liters. ("Take me to your leader. Here's all my liters!" ~ Mater Tales)

That's a big liter!

The night ended with more fireworks on the balcony.

"I love the fireworks!"

Shawn preferred to watch his fireworks from the safety of the inside
of the hotel room and enjoy Plex's company.

Modeling his new mouse ears hat!

Snuggled in bed and laughing about the fun of the day.
I think they now understand why they call this the "happiest
place on earth!"

We had a fantastic time and can't wait until we can go back again!